Put them together for Hamilton Elementary School’s math night and it all adds up to fun with numbers.

That’s right – on the evening of Nov. 15, Hamilton math teachers invited parents to stop by the Coon Rapids school, have some dinner, learn some lessons and gain some understanding about how math is taught in District 11 schools.

“The purpose of our math night is to educate parents, inform them of how we teach math, relieve the mystery,” said Mary Scales, fifth-grade math teacher and organizer of math night at Hamilton.

Strategies for teaching math have evolved from those used during the days when today’s parents were in school.

And so Hamilton staff invited parents to math night for an opportunity to learn ways to support their child’s lessons at home – and better help with math homework.

Math sessions offered during math night included math website exploration, instruction about how Anoka-Hennepin students learn to subtract and multiply – often a source of wonder for parents, according to Scales – and games that help exercise and support the child’s math-thinking brain.

“There’s something different about hearing and seeing how (math is) taught,” said Scales.

“Parents are better able to help their child at home with math when they know how it’s taught to them.”

Some 150 parents and children came to Hamilton’s Nov. 15 math night, an event that satisfied the education component of the Title 1 funding the school receives.

“This was fun, mom. Now you know what math is,” a Hamilton student said, smiling at her mother as they left math night.